Timeline 1941–1944

September 8, 1941: Capture of Shlisselburg. Leningrad is now encircled, save for the precarious link across Lake Ladoga. The "900 Days of Leningrad" begin, as Finnish troops have advanced to the former Karelian border. The entire area south of the Neva River, from Ivanovskoye to Lake Ladoga, is now in German hands. The first bombing raid on the city causes 178 fires.

The following day, September 9, 1941, Lothar Gruber joins his future battalion—part of the 272nd Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division, which is subordinate to the XXXVIII Army Corps— and begins his service as a radio operator.

September 23, 1941: The XXXVIII Army Corps launches an attack on the eastern part of Peterhof and the heights approximately 10 km south of Oranienbaum.
On this day, an artillery shell strikes the building where Private Gruber is located.

November 6, 1941: Moscow receives its first Lend-Lease loan from the USA.

December 5, 1941: The Soviet winter offensive forces the Wehrmacht to retreat behind the Volkhov River.

December 8, 1941: Offensive operations outside Moscow are halted due to the winter and troop exhaustion.

December 19, 1941: Hitler declares himself Commander-in-Chief of the Army. (In doing so, he becomes "GröFaZ"—the "Greatest Field Commander of All Time".)

On January 20, 1942, the infamous "Wannsee Conference" takes place.

On February 14, 1942, the British Cabinet decides to launch air raids against the enemy civilian population.

May 17, 1942: Start of the victorious Battle of Kharkov.

June 7, 1942: The conquest of the Crimea begins.

On June 28, 1942, the German summer offensives on the Eastern Front begin. These include the planned capture of Leningrad.

August 21, 1942: Mount Elbrus is reached. However, the route for American aid shipments via Persia cannot be cut off.

September 1, 1942: The 6th Army advances into the suburbs of Stalingrad.

November 7, 1942: The landing of American troops in North Africa signals an impending Allied victory in this secondary theater of war.

November 19, 1942: Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad. By November 22, 1942, the 6th Army is encircled in Stalingrad.

On January 18, 1943, following heavy fighting, Soviet troops open a narrow land corridor to Leningrad along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga.

January 21, 1943: First major American air fleet attack (Wilhelmshaven).

January 31, 1943: Paulus surrenders with his "southern pocket" in Stalingrad.

February 2, 1943: Final surrender of the remnants of the 6th Army in Stalingrad.

On February 18, 1943, Dr. Goebbels proclaims "total war," thereby preventing the broadcast of greetings from Private Gruber via the Soldiers' Radio Belgrade.

April 17, 1943: Warsaw Ghetto—armed Jewish resistance against extermination (lasting until June 16, 1943).

On May 13, 1943, Italian-German forces in North Africa surrender.

On July 5, 1943, Operation Citadel (the "Tank Battle of Kursk") fails.

The Allied landing in Sicily takes place on July 10, 1943.

August 4, 1943: Soviet troops capture Orel.

On September 3, 1943, the secondary theater of war in southern Italy spreads to the mainland (Taranto; Salerno on September 9, 1943). However, only relatively few German units are tied down as a result.

7 Sep 1943 Loss of the Donets Basin.

8 Sep 1943 Italy announces the armistice with the Allies.

20 Sep 1943 Evacuation of Bryansk.

25 Sep 1943 Evacuation of Smolensk.

On 6 Oct 1943, German defensive operations begin in the Nevel area.

On 7 Oct 1943, the German withdrawal from the Caucasus is completed.

On 13 Oct 1943, Italy declares war on Germany.

On 23 Oct 1943, the Crimea is cut off.

6 Nov 1943 Kiev is lost.

25 Nov 1943 Evacuation of Gomel. German line: Dnieper – Orsha – Vitebsk – northwest of Velikiye Luki.

2 Dec 1943 Decree on the conscription of German youth for wartime tasks.

22 Dec 1943 "National Socialist Leadership Officers" are introduced in the Wehrmacht.

26 Dec 1943 Sinking of the *Scharnhorst*.

14 Jan. 1944 Defensive battles involving Army Group North (until 23 Apr. 1944).

20 Jan. 1944 Novgorod falls.

4 Mar. 1944 Soviet offensive pushes the Wehrmacht back beyond the Bug River.

20 Mar. 1944 Vinnitsa is lost.

27 Mar. 1944 Soviet troops advance into Galicia.

28 Mar. 1944 The Red Army reaches the Prut River near Iași. Nikolayev falls.

8 Apr. 1944 The Czechoslovak border is reached.

10 Apr. 1944 Soviet forces cross the upper Sereth River. Odessa falls; loss of southern Ukraine.

15 Apr. 1944 The encircled city of Tarnopol falls.

6 June 1944 The Allied invasion of northern France opens another—and this time highly significant—secondary theater of war, tying down strong German forces (though these were often of only second-rate quality). The landing has little impact on the outcome of the war, as the conflict on the main Eastern Front has long since been decided.

22 June 1944 Army Group Centre is encircled and destroyed between the Daugava River and the Pripet Marshes (loss of 25 divisions). This causes the core of the Eastern Front to collapse; it is arguably the most significant German defeat of the war.

2 July 1944 Minsk falls.

13 July 1944 Start of the summer offensive against Army Group North. Vilna falls.

16 July 1944 Grodno falls.

18 July 1944 Bialystok falls.

20 July 1944 Colonel Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

27 July 1944 Lemberg and Dünaburg fall.

1 August 1944 Kaunas falls. Uprising in Warsaw. Hitler orders collective punishment of families (Sippenhaftung).

15 August 1944 Allied landing in southern France.

25 August 1944 Paris falls. Romania declares war on Germany.

30 August 1944 The Red Army captures the Romanian oil-producing region of Ploiești, vital to the German Reich.

4 September 1944 Russian troops reach Hungary at Kronstadt.

On 6 September 1944, Soviet troops reach the Yugoslav border. Soldier Gruber is killed in action at Bahri near Mitau, Latvia.